May 21  
Pakistan tour by Australia still on, assures Tauqir

ISLAMABAD: "The Australian cricket tour to this country is still on and the Bhandari inquiry commission has already submitted its report to the government," Chairman, Pakistan Cricket Board, Lt Gen Tauqir Zia said on Monday. "The government has received the report, but the PCB have not yet got it," he told newsmen. "The PCB will publish the report as soon as the government asks us to do so."

On the Australian cricketers' scheduled tour to Pakistan in September-October, the PCB chief said that it had not been officially cancelled so far. "ACB's CEO Malcom Gray spoke to me on phone and agreed tours should go on and that it'll be premature to speculate on the issue. Gray also said that something similar to the Karachi incident had also occurred in Australia 20 years ago."

He said incidents like the one in Karachi had occurred in India, Sri Lanka and England, too, but they did not affect cricket tours there. "For our part, we will provide full security to the tourists," Tauqir said. "Our priority is to prepare the team for the World Cup for which series against Australia on a neutral venue will also be welcome. But it'll be better to have cricket and money both by playing a home series at home. We are trying to achieve that goal."

To a question, he said that the PCB had incurred "quite a big financial loss" owing to the cancellation of a Test against New Zealand and earlier the series against India. "But an exact figure is yet to be worked out, but we are trying to reduce our expenditures."

"Our fight should be with the ICC to get compensation if a tour is cancelled rather than approaching respective boards and reassuring them of our security measures," he said. Replying to another question, Tauqir said he would rather like Shoaib Akhtar take wickets than have his name entered in the Guinness Book of World Records. "The International Cricket Council don't have such records and it is wrong to say that they're hesitating on Shoaib's 100mph speed record," he said.

To queries about the team, Tauqir said the captain and coach would be retained on series-to-series basis. "This policy was adopted after the earlier plan to have long-term captain and coach was found to have some flaws." He said Waqar Younis would have to maintain his fitness to last till the World Cup. "The performance of the captain and coach will be judged on series-to-series basis."

He was asked to comment on Waqar's statement that the PCB must then finalise 20 players for the World Cup. "He knows and I know who these 20 will be, but some others could also get a last-minute berth in the team on the basis of their performance." He said the new PCB constitution would be implemented from July.